Pests in your home

The spring and summer months can provide some unwanted guests into your home or communal area. So you might find the following pests knocking at your door:

Ants

Bees

Bugs

Mice

Rats

Squirrels

Below is a guide to the responsibilities for pests in your home and what you can do to help keep these guests at bay.

Our responsibility

We are responsible for pests in communal areas. This can include a garden in a scheme or a block of flats. We will attend to an issue with pests where the area is shared with others. We will also attend to pest issues if you live in one of Bromford’s supported schemes.

If you need to report a pest issue in a communal area or supported scheme, please contact us.

Your responsibility

If pests are in your home or your non-communal garden, then you’re responsible for dealing with this issue. This will be outlined in your tenancy agreement.

If you’re responsible for a pest issue, here is what you will need to do:

Wasps

You will need to contact environmental health from your local authority. You can do so here.

Alternatively, you may want to hire a qualified contractor to carry out the work.

To help keep wasps at bay, here are some tips you can try:

To help catch wasps, fill a jar with water. Then place this on an upside down plant pot and smear the inside of the jar with something sweet like jam. The wasp will then be attracted to the jam and might fall into the water

Wear red – Wasps can’t see this colour and will be more attracted to you if you wear yellow

If you’re outside, keep a spray bottle of water near by. If a wasp approaches, spray it with water. This will make it hard for the wasp to fly. You could then catch the wasp and release it when you have finished eating

Don’t panic! If a wasp is nearby, don’t try to wave your arms. Although it’s easier said than done, a wasp might get angry at this motion. Simply stay calm and walk away.

Ants

You will need to contact environmental health from your local authority. You can do so here.

There are things you can do to try help to eliminate ants in your home. Firstly, if you visit your local hardware store or garden centre, they will sell a range of ant repellents or killers. These are designed to attract the ants to a food source which they take back to their nest.

If you’re buying one of these products, make sure they are non-toxic and be careful when placing these where young children could gain access to them.

Here are some quick tips for keeping ants at bay:

Draw a line with chalk or create a perimeter with powdered chalk

Squeeze a lemon into any cracks or holes where they may be coming from

Create a path of salt to prevent any ants crossing the line

Spray ants with a mixture of vinegar and water to keep them at bay.

Bees

Bees are not classed as a pest. These will need to be removed by a qualified bee keeper. You can find a bee keeper for your area here.

If you have a pest in your home and you’re unsure of who is responsible, please do not hesitate to contact us.